Puddles
by LadyWallace
Summary: Just when Thorin thinks that one afternoon alone watching the boys couldn't be that difficult… Shamless fluff and adorable dwarflings.


**This is a prompt request I wrote for **AnastaziaDanielle** (her stories are lovely so if you haven't read them, go do so!)**** about Fili and Kili falling into mud puddles and Thorin having to clean them up. Shameless fluff and adorable dwarflings, hope you all enjoy! :) I'm working on the other prompts I received will hopefully get them up by next weekend!**

Puddles

A Hobbit Fanfic

Dis was only going to be gone for the afternoon, so of course Thorin volunteered to watch Fili and Kili for her. It couldn't be that hard, right? He had certainly managed for longer than that before without too much trouble. But then, who was he kidding? His nephews always seemed to get into the most trouble when he least expected it, and it seemed today was no exception.

It all started with the rain. They were just going to go outside to play when it started pouring and Fili and Kili looked up at Thorin with such dejected faces that he was wont to gather them onto his lap and promised to tell them stories until the rain stopped, hoping that they might fall asleep in the process and forgo the outside adventures until tomorrow when Dis would have taken charge again.

But of course that didn't work. Halfway through an old dwarf fairy tale, the rain stopped pattering on the roof and Kili was up immediately, slipping from Thorin's lap and rushing toward the window. He jumped to peek out of it and Fili was close behind him.

"Unca!" little Kili cried, hopping up and down excitedly. "The rain's stopped, the rain's stopped, can we goes outside now?"

Thorin refrained from sighing. "Very well, I did promise you could. Let's get your coats and boots on though; you don't want to catch cold. And make sure you don't go splashing in any puddles, or your mum will kill me when she gets home." The two dwarflings giggled at the mental picture of their mother 'killing' Uncle Thorin and promised solemnly not to jump in any puddles.

Thorin put his own coat on and took their little hands in his as they stepped outside into the wet yard. They instantly pulled away to chase each other around, even only a couple hours of being cooped up inside proving too much for the little rascals. Thorin smiled fondly as he watched them play, and was surprised and very proud of them for keeping away from the mud puddles. In fact, they seemed to have made some game out of it, pretending there were monsters hiding out in them, and if they fell in, or so much as stuck in a toe, they would be eaten. He began to think they might actually be able to finish their playtime without incident, when he called them back to see if they wanted their snack.

"Yes!" they cried in unison, and Fili began racing his little brother back. Kili screamed and reached out a hand to grab the back of Fili's coat.

"No fair, Fi, yous got longer legs than me! You can wun fasterer!" Kili yanked him back to get ahead and just as Thorin shouted out a warning, Fili, caught off balance, tripped over a rock and fell right on his backside in a deep mud puddle. Thorin winced as all three of them stopped in shock. Not only had Fili managed to get himself covered head to toe, but Kili had been in the splash range and was nearly as filthy as his older brother.

The little one began to cry. "Oh no, Fi, now Mum's gonna kill Unca Forin!"

Thorin fought to restrain his smile at his youngest nephew's distress and went over to the boys, helping Fili up and trying to console Kili as much as he could without getting mud all over himself.

"It's all right, Kili, we'll clean you up and then your mother won't have any reason to kill me." Kili instantly flung his arms around Thorin's neck and the dwarf winced as mud was smeared over the front of his tunic. He forced a smile though and picked Kili up as he offered Fili his hand and took the boys into the house, leaving a trail of mud behind them. He cringed at the mud on the floor and hoped he would have enough time to clean it up before Dis came home, but first he had to get the boys clean before they spread the mess further.

"Into the bathroom, lads," he instructed and they trooped in dutifully. Thorin set Kili down who was no longer afraid Dis was going to kill his uncle, and was laughing at Fili's accident. Thorin started the long process of filling the tub and somehow managed to get water all over the floor and himself in the process, not even understanding how it had happened.

"Uncle, you're making a mess!" Fili admonished with a giggle.

Thorin ignored him as he poured the last bucket of water into the bathtub and poured some soap into the water to make bubbles. Now came the hard part.

"All right, boys, time to get out of the muddy clothes."

It took some doing getting out of the wet muddy clothing, and Thorin just managed to get even more mud on himself and was wondering how on earth he would get all the mud out of Fili's hair which was looking as brown as Kili's at the moment. Finally both the dwarflings were unclothed and they hopped into the bathtub with more vigor than Thorin would have suggested.

"Easy, boys!" he admonished as they splashed around and got him even wetter. He began to wonder whether he had added too much bubble bath for the bubbles seemed to be growing until they nearly covered both dwarflings and spilled over onto the floor. Kili giggled and flung bubbles into the air.

"Woo, Mummy never puts this many bubbles in the baff!" he cried and began to form a beard out of the bubbles, striking a majestic pose. "Look, Unca Forin! I haves a beard!"

"That's very nice, Kili," Thorin said and knelt in a puddle next to the bathtub so he could wash Fili's hair. "Now, Fili, let's get your hair clean first." He tried to lather the muddy, blond mess, but he had forgotten to take Fili's braids out first and the young dwarf howled and grabbed at his hair, turning around to glare at Thorin.

"That hurts!" he said.

"All right, just hold on," Thorin sighed in resignation and began to try to undo the braids, but Fili's hair was so matted from the mud and wet, that he had an extremely hard time getting them undone, and Fili was wailing about him pulling his hair through the whole ordeal. Kili, meanwhile was only succeeding in stirring up the bath by hopping around in the bubbles and sloshing water all over the floor and into Thorin's lap. Kili then launched himself across the tub and flung a bunch of bubbles at Thorin, hitting him right in the face.

Thorin wiped the bubbles off with his wet and muddy sleeve, fearing that he was spreading mud over his face in the process, but barely got time to register, because Kili was laughing so hard at what had happened that he fell over the side of the tub and Thorin just barely caught him before he hit his head on the floor. Then came the struggle of getting the slippery wet dwarfling back into the tub without dropping him again before he started back on Fili's hair and finally got everything undone so he could wash it properly. He had to keep forcing Fili's head back so he wouldn't get soap in his eyes, but Kili's antics weren't helping, and he finally just rinsed the soap out, hoping that was good enough. Then came Kili who squirmed so much, he was barely able to keep him still long enough to soap his hair. The younger one whined and complained too, but Thorin finally managed to get the both scrubbed and cleaned and soon two toweled dwarflings were standing in the puddles on the floor and Thorin was breathing a sigh of relief that that at least was done.

"Okay, boys, go find some clothes in your room so you don't get any wetter, then you can have your snack while I clean our mess up." Just as he turned around to find more towels, his foot landed in a puddle of soap and water and his feet shot right out from under him and he landed with a jarring thump right on his backside.

Fili and Kili were silent a moment in shock and then they suddenly started laughing uproariously as Thorin picked himself up, rubbing his bruised tailbone and trying not to say anything Dis wouldn't want the boys to learn.

"And that's why you don't want to leave water on the floor," he grumbled and shooed them out. "Now go get dressed!"

He started to clean up the water with their discarded towels when he heard them calling for their snacks and decided to see to that first. He fought a laugh as he found Fili dressed moderately well, but Kili with a pair of pants on his head and a tunic on backwards. He quickly re-arranged his clothing and gave them their snacks and told them to go play in their room for a while. They skittered off and he finally set back to cleaning.

He sopped up all the water in the bathroom, and emptied the tub before setting out to mop up the mud from their rather dirty entrance.

He was just finishing up, on his knees in front of the bathroom, wiping up the last of the mud when the door opened and Dis came in.

She stopped as she saw her brother kneeling on the ground with an annoyed expression on his face as he dropped the cloth into the bucket of water and stood up.

The thrashed, forlorn look of him sent Dis into instant laughter and she stepped forward to take the bucket from her brother's hands. "Oh Thorin, whatever has happened to you? You look worse than the boys when I let them play in the rain!"  
"Aye, you should have warned me about that," Thorin said half-heartedly.

Dis smiled and walked over to the boys' room. She opened the door and saw them curled up together with their toys on the bed, fast asleep. She closed the door quietly. "Well, it looks like you did something right at least." She kissed Thorin on his dirty cheek. "Thank you. Now you had best get yourself cleaned up. I won't have you on my furniture like that!"

Thorin opened his mouth to protest then couldn't help returning his sister's grin and peeked in fondly at his boys before he went to do just what she had told him to.


End file.
